


One Or Zero

by Shatterhand2049



Category: Blade Runner (Movies)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 08:34:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19247596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shatterhand2049/pseuds/Shatterhand2049
Summary: In 2049, a lonely working man takes a bold step to end his loneliness.  Will he find happiness or emptiness?





	One Or Zero

**LOS ANGELES | 2049**

Sticker shock was starting to set in.

Jason glanced at the bag of VERY expensive items resting on the passenger seat before focusing once again on the air lanes and letting out a stressed sigh. "What the hell did I just do?" He muttered, looking back at how all of it had unfolded...

 

He couldn't lie; the advertisements lured him in. They were EVERYWHERE. He couldn't turn his head two ways going back and forth to work without seeing her. EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO HEAR. That was one of the slogans that would accompany her visage as it gazed at you with big, beautiful eyes, practically begging you to stop whatever you're doing and rescue her from her retail prison.

Her beauty targeted a soul-poisoning loneliness within Jason that had been growing more and more potent in the months since his last relationship ended. His girlfriend had been offered a promising position off-world that she could not pass up, and Jason, already settled into his job and unable to transfer or quit, could not find it in himself to force her to stay. As much as they cared for one another, he believed the right thing to do was to let her pursue her dream. They parted on amicable terms, but her absence left a black hole that slowly pulled the light within Jason into it. There were attempts at dates with other women, but they never went far. Either the spark wasn't there or other incompatibilities arose, and the game proved more stressful and draining than it was worth. That was when the advertisements he saw each day began to more pointedly draw his attention.

Every time he saw them the temptation grew stronger, but until this particular day, he'd managed to keep one foot firmly planted in reality by reminding himself of the astronomical cost. Nothing made by the Wallace Corporation ever came cheap, save for maybe the t-shirts and hats you could buy at their gift shops. And, sure; there were the knock-offs that sold for a fraction of the price or, if you really wanted to take a chance, a pirated version, but pirated editions often contained hidden malicious coding, and no off-brand design could compare to a Wallace creation, and their level of perfection always comes at a hefty price. Jason had a good job that paid well in spite of his lack of certifications or degrees, but he always seemed to be taking his paycheck with one hand and distributing it to expenses with the other. Afterward, he had enough to keep him nourished with a roof over his head and a Spinner to get him from point A to point B, but extras were very few and far between. The logic was loud and clear: he couldn't afford such a luxury.

The aforementioned precarious footing within that realm of logic, reason and financial responsibility was permanently lost earlier in the day, however, as he was walking across a sky-bridge during a meal break. He listened to the rain tap against the metal roof and allowed himself a moment to unwind from the stresses of the morning. A shimmer of light caught his eye, and he turned to his left. There she was; a brilliant magenta and blue holographic shimmer of naked beauty. Jason averted his eyes quickly and continued his walk, but when he glanced left again, he saw her move from her default pose and descend to one knee next to his walking path.

"Hello, handsome."

Jason looked around, figuring that she couldn't possibly be talking to him.

"Yes, I'm talking to you, silly." The ethereal image let out a giggle. 

Jason was sure he heard his wallet sigh in defeat. "Hello." He blushed, feeling both charmed and embarrassed. It seemed so foolish to talk and react to an advertisement like it was someone striking up a conversation, but that's just how real it felt: personal and inviting.

"You look stressed...and lonely." A delicate finger, shaped from light, pointed straight at him. "I can fix that...if you'll let me."

"No, I...I can't."

"Are you sure?" Her lips curled ever so slightly into a pout. "You only live once, you know."

Yeah, but I don't want to be poor at the same time, Jason thought to himself. 

Still, that pout, and the perfection of her body...Wallace's marketing team knew exactly how to weaken a potential buyer's defenses.

The electric goddess rose, slowly opened her hand and gestured gracefully toward him. He felt his phone vibrate. Had to be a QR code, Jason guessed.

"In case you change your mind. I hope you will." She silently made her way back to the brilliantly glowing neon sign that accompanied her.

He made his way back to the office tower, knowing exactly what he was going to be doing when his shift was over.

 

"How was it out there today?" Trav, one of Jason's coworker and a friend, asked without looking away from his terminal.

"The usual: ramen and rain," Jason replied with a smirk as he sat down at his desk.

"Sounds like a day ending in the letter Y," Trav remarked with a chuckle. "I'll skip lunch; see if I can punch out an hour early."

Jason scoffed. "Good luck with that; Takahashi's been cracking the whip on early departures and PTO."

"Well, either he pays me for an extra hour or lets me go home early. Them's the two. It's their damn fault, anyway. They're still wasting our time on corrupt data recovery from pre-Blackout servers. It's put us all behind schedule. If I could get caught up, I wouldn't have to work through my breaks."

"Yeah, I hear ya." A few moments of silence settled in between them as Jason resumed his categorizing and maintenance of incoming cloud data. The process was so familiar to Jason that eventually, he could settle into a steady and productive rhythm.

"Hey, Trav," Jason finally spoke again. "What do you think of Wallace's AI?"

"It's the best one on the market, and lord knows it's easy on the eyes...but too rich for my blood. Besides, something like that, dude...it's just not the same, you know?"

"Hmm."

"Why?"

"Just curious," Jason replied, ending the conversation as he re-focused on his work.

 

"Welcome, Mr. Corvus," the Wallace sales representative cheerfully greeted as Jason walked in. As used to it as he should be, it always unnerved him to hear someone he didn't know regard him as if they'd met before. Facial recognition systems never missed a blemish, a wrinkle, or a mole...it could pinpoint you whenever it needed to.

"Hey," he replied simply, noting the name on the tag the representative was wearing: Mercury. Fitting, Jason thought; the Roman god of commerce.

"How may we help you today?"

Jason had a chance to dismiss Mercury and be on his way. "I'm just browsing." "Just looking around." "Looking for gift ideas." Any of those replies would be enough, and he could walk out the door and his savings would remain with him. Then he thought of his towering magenta siren with her dark-eyed gaze beaming directly into the loneliest part of his soul while speaking with the softest, gentlest voice he'd ever heard. 'Everything you want to hear', indeed. 

Jason approached the desk, showed the sales representative the QR code sent to his phone, and explained what he wanted, and Mercury was all too eager to explain what would be needed. Jason decided to skip the ceiling rig; he wasn't particularly versed in hardware setups and it wasn't as if his meager accommodations had much room for it. He aimed straight for the highest tier: the emanator package; There was still some hardware to install for that version but he was skilled enough to set it up. 'If you're going to do something stupid', as Trav often said, 'don't half-ass it; go all the way'. 

"I've upgraded her firmware to the latest version for you, Mr. Corvus," Mercury announced cheerily. "All you'll need to do once you've installed the main unit is pair the emanator to it, and you'll be all set."

"Thank you," Jason said, looking at the packages in front of him.

'You only live once, you know.' The words echoed in his mind.

Jason handed over the card and Mercury began to process the payment. He felt a tiny bit of his self-respect die a miserable death when the approval came through, but surely this couldn't be SO terrible, right? He could pay this off over time, and what is ending one's loneliness worth?

"Here is your card, Mr. Corvus, and your equipment. Thank you for shopping with us. We hope you'll be satisfied with our product."

 

After parking the Spinner and entering his apartment, Jason got to work setting up the unit and configuring it. Within half an hour, he had the main unit attached to the wall, turned on and paired to the Wallace network. Then, he retrieved the emanator from its case and followed the instructions for pairing.

Jason's heart was racing, and his breathing had become short. "For shit's sake," he muttered, "I'm actually nervous. Why am I nervous? What's wrong with me?" He shook his head in puzzlement and turned on the emanator.

A very short, classical-style music tone played as the Wallace Corporation logo appeared. Then...there she was, standing before him as a voiceover strikingly similar to Mercury's spoke:

"Introducing: Joi. She's everything you want to see, and everything you want to hear."


End file.
